Mondi to launch pigmented paper for improved dye ink printing

Mondi will use the Hunkeler Innovationdays next month to spearhead a push into the continuous feed digital print market, and revealed that it is working on papers that match the properties of coated gloss and silks suitable for high speed inkjet production.

Mondi's DNS enhanced color inkjet paper

It will lead with the launch of a new grade of inkjet paper that it claims offers cost and quality benefits, DNS enhanced color inkjet.

The grade uses a pigment coating, which is designed to offer the higher print density and image quality usually associated with pigmented inks when using the lower cost and more commonplace dye-based inks.

"Don’t mix the term ‘pigmented paper’ with ‘pigment inks’," said Mondi Uncoated Fine Paper marketing and sales director Johannes Klumpp. "The fact that this paper is pigmented supports using dye inks. The colour density you can reach using DNS enhanced color inkjet paper with dye inks is the same as using pigment inks with other high-speed inkjet paper."

Klumpp added that the pigment coating also improved the print quality with pigment inks.

In addition to DNS enhanced color inkjet Mondi will also show two papers that were announced at Drupa last year for the first time. The two products are the Nautilus high-speed inkjet and off-white Bio Top 3 high-speed inkjet. Nautilus is the firm’s brand of 100% recycled paper, while Bio Top 3 is an off-white uncoated paper with no optical brighteners aimed at book printing.

Klumpp added that the new products represented Mondi's first steps towards producing a wider range of grades to enable more applications to be produced using continuous feed inkjet technology.

"Mondi is focused on increasing the variety of the paper by introducing paper grades with different shades and pulp content," he said.

"Papers which are similar to coated offset with a silk or glossy surface are not available for all high-speed inkjet printing presses and inks. Mondi is working intensively on expanding the choice for printers exactly in this direction. DNS enhanced color inkjet is the first step in this direction."